Tom Cotton

Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton are similar in several respects. Both attended top Ivy League colleges and graduated from Harvard Law School. Both are extremely intelligent. Both were elected to the U.S. Senate as darlings of many conservatives. Neither was shy upon arrival. Both made their initial splash in committee hearings — Cruz when he took on Dianne Feinstein; Cotton when he said the Gitmo detainees can rot in hell. »

The left has a new talking point — actually a taunt — regarding Tom Cotton’s letter to Iran. In unison, the left is tweeting that the Senator, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, couldn’t find Iran on a map. Accusing a political adversary of being a yokel — that’s just the kind of insightful analysis we can count on from the left. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen joined the »

As Scott notes, Tom Cotton has created a firestorm with his open letter to Iran, signed by 46 of his Senate colleagues. The letter explains that unless an agreement between President Obama and Iran receives Senate approval, it will not bind the next president. Vice President Biden intones that the letter is “beneath the dignity of an institution I revere.” This is sheer wind-baggery. If Biden revered the Senate, he »

In my post last night listing Tom Cotton’s committee assignments, I failed to include the Select Committee on Intelligence. Arguably, this is the Senator’s must important assignment. We live in a time when defense budgets are being slashed and the U.S. president is largely unwilling to put American boots on the ground, even to fight bloody thirsty terrorists with designs on attacking America. In this environment, our intelligence professionals are »

This evening, I attended a reception in honor of Tom Cotton who will be sworn in as a Senator tomorrow by Vice President Joe Biden. Tom now has a beard. Does it make him look more Senatorial? I don’t know. Check out his swearing in on C-SPAN and see what you think. Tom was very gracious as he greeted those of us in the receiving line. Although not a glad-hander, »

Bet that headline got your attention. It’s accurate, but out of context. Turns out that Tom Cotton, Harvard class of 1998 and an editor at the Harvard Crimson, wrote an editorial in 1997 entitled “Love’s End” that adumbrated Allan Bloom’s observations in The Closing of the American Mind about the decaying dating and courtship habits of undergraduates today. It bores in on how “relationships” have replaced old fashioned “love.” It »

Today’s Washington Post includes brief profiles of several of the Republicans who won Senate seats yesterday, including one titled Who Is Tom Cotton? The reporter called me a few days ago while working on this piece, and asked about our early role in publicizing Tom’s letter to the New York Times, which first brought him to public attention. What he wrote about that incident is accurate: In 2006, after the »

If you believe Nate Silver, and his track record (2010 and 2012) provides plenty of reason to do so, there is only one “toss-up” Senate race at this point. That’s the Kansas race between incumbent Republican Pat Roberts and alleged independent Greg Orman. In all other Senate races, Silver finds that one candidate has a 66 percent or better chance of winning. And in two races once thought to be »

A new poll, this one by Talk Business and Politics/Hendrix College, puts Tom Cotton’s lead over Mark Pryor at 48-41. The survey included more than 2,000 likely voters and was taken after the last week’s Cotton-Pryor debate (as I understand it, there will be no more debates between the two). The margin of error is plus or minus 2.2 percent. According to Dr. Jay Barth of Hendrix College, the survey »

Tom Cotton made a strong showing in last night’s Arkansas Senate debate. His opponent, Mark Pryor, fought hard, but may ultimately have put the final nail in his coffin. Asked by one of the questioners to define the middle class, Pryor at first ducked the question. When pressed, he opined that it consisted of those making up to $200,000 a year. Talk about out of touch. Pryor’s definition might pass »

I share John’s uneasiness about the November elections. Republican chances of gaining control of the Senate have been downgraded to less than 60 percent by Nate Silver, whose track record as a political forecaster is outstanding. One reason for the downgrade is the emergence of pseudo-independent Greg Orman in the Kansas race. If he defeats Republican Pat Roberts, and the polls give him a clear lead, the GOP will have »

File this one under “Pryor Analytics,” or why Mark Pryor is a horse’s posterior. Even Jon Stewart can’t get over how pathetic Pryor’s latest “Ebola” attack at on Tom Cotton is (just 30 seconds long): »

A new poll by NBC/Marist shows Tom Cotton leading Mark Pryor 45-40 among likely voters (registered voters divide evenly, 41-41). That’s a big swing from NBC/Marist’s last survey of the race, taken in very early May. It had Pryor leading 51-40. This was only poll in which Pryor cracked 50 percent. The early May poll was, then, an outlier. But most polls taken around that time had Pryor ahead. No »

Earlier today, Scott quoted from an editorial in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette which contrasted Tom Cotton’s courage to the “go along to get along” mindset of his opponent, Mark Pryor. The editorial stated that, given Tom’s character, “it’s easy to imagine his sticking with principle even if the whole state went crazy again.” Yes it is. Indeed, even though Tom has been in Congress for less than two years, we have »

Seriously. Senator Mark Pryor’s latest attack on Tom Cotton has become something of a scandal. Here is Pryor’s ad, accusing Tom of being pro-ebola, or something: This is how the Cotton campaign responded: Coming soon to a TV near you: Tom Cotton hates puppies, baseball, and apple pie. … Cotton spokesman David Ray responded to the ad, saying: “Senator Pryor’s desperation is comical. In Senator Pryor’s world, he doesn’t have »

Yesterday, I wrote about a new poll from Kellyanne Conway’s firm that found substantial public support for a hard line on immigration policy. Other pollsters may be seeing the same phenomenon because certain Republican Senate candidates — notably Scott Brown, Tom Cotton, and Terri Lind Land — have been running ads sounding the hard line theme. Given the diversity of the states in question — purple Michigan, red Arkansas, and »

You have probably noticed that this year’s Power Line Picks are up on our main page. They consist of two Senate candidates — Rep. Tom Cotton (Ark) and Joni Ernst (Iowa) — and four House candidates — Mia Love (Utah-4), Stewart Mills (Minn-8), Alex Mooney (WVA-2), and Elise Stefanik (NY-21). Cotton and Love were on our 2012 slate, which many of you generously supported. Tom won a resounding victory, and »